The Value of Anatomy Coursework for Professional School

Abstract

Some portion of students entering health professional programs each year have had prior coursework in anatomy even if anatomy is not a pre‐requisite course for their given program. Programs training future clinicians in medicine, dentistry, physical and occupational therapy all provide in depth anatomy instruction early in their respective curricula. Who provides this instruction at the professional schools, along with their anatomy teaching background, can vary widely across institutions and professions. In the allied health fields of physical and occupational therapy, the majority of faculty are called out of the clinical ranks to fill teaching vacancies and therefore must pursue terminal degree to satisfy accreditation requirements. Many of these programs call on faculty from outside of the clinical profession, and perhaps even the institution, to teach their courses in anatomy and neuroscience. Graduate programs in anatomy can fill an important gap in the training options for clinicians who are interested in pursuing teaching options within their professional field, or who already have begun.In many health professional programs gross anatomy is a difficult course, taught early in the curriculum, which can cause students to need remediation and/or face removal from the program. Without knowledge of the students' abilities in the professional program the only source of information about this potential struggle is prior academic coursework and standardized testing usually gathered as part of the admissions application. Throughout the health professions there is research on prior academic coursework and the predictive value towards program outcomes; however, the specific details in regards to anatomy coursework are not as thoroughly researched.These issues have led to a research study that aims to look at how prior courses in anatomy impact student performance in the health professional gross anatomy courses. The outcomes include both grade performance data and the students' own perceptions of the value of their prior coursework. Even though statistical analyses do not support a grade benefit to the prior anatomy course for medical and dental students, the students perceive it to be tremendously beneficial both at the beginning and end of their professional school gross anatomy coursework. Student perceptions can lead to increased confidence going into a course and also influence the decisions that students make in regards to their study habits.Future directions for this research include expanding the study to occupational and physical therapy students as well as a comparison across the four disciplines at a major medical center. Outcomes from this project could impact undergraduate pre‐health sciences advising, professional school admissions, and student supports in health professional programs.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.